Leading doctors are demanding a complete ban on the use of man-made fats found in thousands of foodstuffs such as biscuits, ready meals and margarine, because they can damage health.

The UK Faculty of Public Health is urging ministers to eradicate artificial trans fatty acids, known as trans fats, from the British diet. The move is needed to reduce people's risk of suffering a heart attack or a stroke, says the faculty, which represents 3,300 doctors and public health specialists in the NHS, local government and medical research.

Trans fats, found in many cakes, pastries, pies, chips and fast foods, are chemically altered vegetable oils used to bulk up foods and increase their shelf life. They have no nutritional value and boost levels of "bad" cholesterol, thereby increasing the chances of a heart attack. Trans fats also occur naturally in meat and dairy products, but these pose no risk.

The World Health Organisation believes artificial trans fats are harmful to health and wants them to be minimised or eliminated altogether. They have also been blamed for causing fertility problems in women.

The UK should follow the example of Denmark, New York, California, Switzerland and Austria in banning trans fats, said Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, the faculty's president. Other countries and regions are planning to take similar action.

"Trans fats are much less well-known than saturated fats but are much more damaging. They are very bad for the heart, play a key role in the UK's very high levels of heart disease and contribute to a large number of the excess coronary deaths we have in this country," Maryon-Davis said. "Foods can be made perfectly well without trans fats. The government should move to ban them as soon as possible because eliminating them completely would help save many lives."

The call to legislate against trans fats is backed by the Royal Society for Public Health, which has produced a joint manifesto with the faculty suggesting such a measure among a series of policy changes to tackle obesity, alcohol problems, sexual infections and food quality. Every year some 141,000 Britons suffer a heart attack and 86,000 die as a result, while another 111,000 have a stroke, of whom 53,000 die.

Professor Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said: "The evidence is indisputable that trans fats raise your risk of having heart disease and so they can ultimately kill you. They also might give you Alzheimer's disease and make you infertile. Do you need to know any more? If people really understood what they were eating and the harms caused by trans fats, they would stop eating foods containing them."

The National Heart Forum, which represents medical organisations and charities involved in combating heart disease, said: "Artificial trans fats in food present a significant health hazard and there is clear agreement that removing them from the food supply would improve public health," said Dr Jane Landon, its vice-chairman. "We are recommending to our members the need for government action to eliminate artificial trans fats."

Although food producers had made progress in cutting their use, and average intake was below officially designated safe levels, Landon said: "We are concerned that some sections of the population, especially poorer consumers who eat more processed and fried foods, are exposed to unacceptable health risks."

In 2007 Alan Johnson, the then health secretary, asked the Food Standards Agency to investigate trans fats. It concluded that no action was needed because average consumption was half of what government scientific advisers said should be the maximum – for 2% of all energy to come from trans fats. The Department of Health last night reiterated that view. However, Maryon-Davis insisted that "as with cigarettes there is no known safe level of consumption".

The British Heart Foundation did not endorse a ban but warned that official figures "could be masking the true extent of trans fats that some people are eating, putting their health and arteries at risk". It wants better labelling to tell consumers how many trans fats are in products they plan to buy. Food manufacturers are currently not obliged to declare trans fat content on packaging.

The food industry's trade association rejected the faculty's call. "Our members have voluntarily made such significant progress in reducing trans fat levels in their products that I feel that the proposal to introduce legislation is not justified", said Barbara Gallani, director of food safety and science at the Food and Drink Federation. Food producers' voluntary action had led to average UK intakes falling to 1% of total energy and they were committed to making further reductions in levels of trans fats, she said.

The British Retail Consortium said its members – which include Sainsbury's, Tesco and Iceland – had fulfilled pledges made in 2006 to remove trans fats from their own-brand foodstuffs.

The faculty also wants smoking to be banned in cars containing children, in order to reduce their exposure to toxic secondhand smoke. Dr Peter Carter, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said it was "a proposal worth considering" to protect children's health.

Dr Tony Jewell, Wales's chief medical officer, said the Welsh assembly planned to look at the issue of children and young people's exposure to tobacco smoke in private cars when it draws up its new tobacco control strategy later this year.

The Department of Health hinted that ministers may take action on the issue. It stressed that "exposure to secondhand smoke is very dangerous, especially for children" and that "in enclosed spaces, and especially in cars, levels of secondhand smoke can be high. Parents have a responsibility to protect their children in any environment."